The Eastern baseball team is heading into a weekend series at Coaches Stadium against top-seeded

Ohio Valley Conference member Southeast Missouri.

The Panthers are coming off a rain-shortened 5-4 win against Indiana State Wednesday at home.

Eastern coach Jimmy Schmitz said the win Wednesday provides a big confidence boost for his club.

“The big key is that is shows the team the things that we have been preaching,” he said. “That is going the other way. If that means late in the game when you’re down you kind of have to base an approach the other way and then we had the good bunts.”

The key play Wednesday was when freshman catcher Hunter Morris laid down a bunt down the first base line, which scored junior shortstop Mitch Gasbarro from third base to give the Panthers the lead in the bottom of the seventh inning, which they would ultimately hold on too.

Sophomore pitcher Chase Thurston picked up his first save of his career Wednesday in one inning of work.

Red-shirt junior Matt Wivinis is expected to pitch game one of the three-game series Friday.

Wivinis is coming off an outing where he threw 7.2 innings against Tennessee Tech and received the win for the Panthers.

Wivinis comes into the game with a 1-5 record with a 4.67 earned run average and 22 strikeouts on the season.

Schmitz said every time Wivinis takes the mound, he looks like he is more comfortable being on the mound.

“That is the key for us that he feels good and we feel good behind him,” he said.

Eastern plans to start junior pitcher Jake Johansmeier Saturday and senior pitcher Garrison Stenger Sunday.

Johansmeier is 0-4 on the season with a 7.23 ERA and has 22 strikeouts on the season.

“This is how we wanted to go with it,” he said. “We feel good with ‘Wiv’ on the mound Friday to give us a good shot to win the first game.”

Stenger worked four innings Wednesday and picked up his first win of the season. He will go into Sunday’s game with a 1-6 record overall and a 10.55 ERA with 34 strikeouts on the season.

The Redhawks come into the weekend series with a 19-13 record overall and are atop the OVC with an 11-4 record.

They are led by senior Andy Lennington, who has a .391 batting average on the season. Lennington has 23 runs batted in and three home runs.

Juniors Ryan Rippee and Branden Boggetto lead the Redhawks with five home runs each.

Rippee is hitting .287 on the season with 30 RBIs and Boggetto has 27 RBIs on the season and is hitting .258.

Junior pitcher Joey Lucchesi leads the Redhawks’ starting pitchers with a 4.17 ERA and he is 4-1 on the season with five games started.

The Panthers and Redhawks will get their series underway Friday at 3 p.m. at Coaches Stadium.

Bob Reynolds can be reached at 581-2812 or rjreynolds@eiu.edu